babylon #1

 babylon #1

woke up worked drank coffee worked
emails phone calls worked rearranged
manuscript last minute stuff worked
worked didn’t think a single thought
about you till I was driving late to
church and the car was flooded with
all that baroque music you loved so well
played so well it was then I bawled I
remember an oratorio we sang in the
teen choir in the methodist church I
grew up in: choir practice was the
social event of the week I learned more
there than music – but we did sing
and sing words, sometimes scripture
“by the waters of babylon I sat down and
wept when I remembered thee . . . if I
forget thee o zion may my right hand
forget its cunning” oh my first born I will
never forget you even when both my hands
lose cunning it is all right though to forget
and then remember and weep and forget
remember again weep again sometimes
not weep for a day or even two days for
you who stayed, chose to stay, in babylon

©2014 Jacqueline Jackson